Trenches

This was by far one of the most intense slave pieces I have read. Isaac was literally a slave as soon as he left his mothers womb. “-on the 14th day of May, 1822, A. D., that I inhaled my first supply of air, that my eyes, for the first time, were brought in contact with the beautiful light surrounding the terrestrial world, the earthly home of mankind, and the first sound of my infant voice was raised in shrill cries for a mother’s tender care and parental affection. This was the place of my nativity and the date of my birth. It was also the time that my mistress became the owner of one more slave and so much richer by my birth. My mother was, unfortunately, numbered in the family of slavedom, belonging to one Mrs. Hannah Woodland, and according to the institution of slave law, I legally, or illegally, became her property.” -Isaac Mason

This was interesting to me because he calls himself “property” which makes it seem like he even thought of himself as an object or a tool rather than a human being who could think and eat and do everything that white people could do. The mindset that was fed into the young children who were slaves is very shocking. They were taught to think like they were lower than everyone else and they were the dirt below the white people’s feet. By creating this sense of inadequate being, the slaves felt as though they never stood a chance against a race that was “obviously much superior”. Isaac was very obedient as a slave, and judging by the vocabulary that he uses he was obviously smarter than many other slaves who were never given any kind of formal education. This was a very interesting slave narrative and it really opened my eyes to the powerful psychological system that the slave owners used against the slaves.

I expect that this narrative will very interesting because it was written from the male persepective that was usually forced to do more work than the women who sometimes became house hands but still did field work. The men played a large role in many of the manual labor jobs on the souther plantations and to hear a perspective of a man who grew up as a slave and was born into it would be very interesting compared to a slave owners view or someone who was three generations freed. Many things that we have read about slavery this year have been accounts that are recorded through history but not actually the pain and years of agony that is revealed through a first person account. The view point that this is going to give me will change the way I thought growing up as a young child in slavery was. By growing up as a slave and working at a young age, I’m sure Isaac Mason had a very different perspective than anyone who was a outside account.

The reading and discussion we had in class today about Mark Twain’s piece which described Satan who was banished to Earth, and his issues with the new race of people and animals. He quickly describes the false dreams that many of these people have that consists of a heaven and hell and church. One of the things that we discussed was intense amount of offensive material in this piece. It made a lot of sense after reading it that it would have offended people during Mark Twain’s era. Religion was not just a part of your life and something that you did every Sunday, it was life. The morals and social restrictions on society were all based upon the religion of your family and town. By insulting these beliefs, that in many cases, keep people going, it could have serious negative ramifications in the society of many Americans who believe in a heaven and hell. While this was not meant to seriously do any damage, it may have if it had leaked into the public eye. Mark Twain is a fantastic satire writer, especially concerning an issue that is as strong as religion. To poke some fun at something that many people live and die by is not the greatest or kindest thing a man could do, yet its hilarious.

The discussion that we had on the situation in the Middle East and the desicion making that needs to be made my the United States made me realize how much this war has developed and become worse over the past several months and years. Politics and military are the two main focuses of the issue in the Middle East especially with our own troops.  Iran’s troops that are supported by the United States should be moved up towards the front lines while we slowly and secretly begin to take soldiers away from battle. One move that is not an option however, is completely removing all soldiers from Iraq. This would kill our image among other nations and especially with any supporters we had in the Middle East that were working for a democracy. The situation that the U.S. is dealing with is like walking on thin ice. One wrong desicion that has a hard impact and everything begins to slowly shatter and then finally completely come apart. This is why the United States needs to begin to find a new way of looking at the tensions between Iran and its religious groups and its political system. Apparently, the system that is in place now is not very effectice and should be changed as soon as possible without extremely negative affects. With all the power that America has it also has large responsibilities and is respected by its comrads so if we were to make a bad desicion those comrads could disappear and not come back which would be a very bad action towards our international relations.

In New York, on October 24, 1999, eighteen Klu Klux Klan members were protesting in lower Manhattan wearing the white hood but it had no mask. This was obviously a very controversial action because the Klu Klux Klan is so offensive to people of all races, sexes and religions that no one could bare to see this symbol of racism standing in New York. The police formed a barracade around the men but it was broken through by a group of people and some of the members were punched and beaten until the police could remove them from the area. I found this amazing in modern day America because of the controversy of the KKK and its existence and to just openly admit to being a member in New York, one of the most crowded places on earth, and to show all these people that you belong to a group that literally symbolizes racism is astonishing. I’m not sure if the men who were wearing the hoods planned on offending people as well as trying to petition whatever their issue was or just solidly picking one. “Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani praises police for peacefully containing situation; constitutional melodrama that preceded event, over Klan members’ intention to wear masks, stretched from City Hall to United States Supreme Court” (Newyorktimes.com http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50B11F73D5C0C778EDDA90994D1494D81). This is something that I never thought would happen on the crowded streets of New York especially because of the racial issues that it brings up. The consitutional issues that it raises are also very heavy duty and had to be brought to the Supreme Court which obviously signifies the severity of the situation.

Satire is so popular because America loves to see other people’s problems or even their own international issues mad fun of on television and in writing. Many shows, such as South Park, take extremely touchy issues and make them hilarious and people actually watch. There is always a unspoken line that people can’t cross when doing a satire such as certain words or actions that may seriously offend someone but they are always extremely controversial and may raise issues. Social problems are funny because when they are presented in satires they are always put to an extreme point. The over exaggeration of many of these sterotypes or certain things that people do in society are hilarious to Americans. Scary Movie makes fun of movies rather than controversial issues in todays society. Borat makes fun of things that are extremely touchy in many European countries and offend people of several religions.

Something that we didn’t heavily discuss in class that I thought was probably the most intense part of the narrative was the description of Mr. Severe. His whipping of men, women, children and letting them bleed for half hours at a time for small problems was horrible. He had absolutely no respect or care for these slaves and he treated them worse than he would his onw mule or dog. The care of the slaves besides the phyical pain was alos mental. By waking them up and controlling their sleep it made them become almost completely submissive and feel mentally incapable of having any sort of revolution against their masters. By making these people feel so weak it gave the masters and slave owners a large boost of their ego and feeling of power. They literally controlled every aspect of a slaves life.

Here is what the kid from Talimi Haq was talking about

Bitter Gourd

My position on Iraq and the current American involvment is that we should leave one quarter to about half of our troops in the Middle East and spread them out amount Iraq and Afghanistan to find Osama Bin Laden and try and build a democracy but not at the jeopardy of American lives. The soldiers who have had to stay in the service for longer than they intended should be relieved and new soldiers will take their place. We should worry more about what is going to benefit our country internally rather than immediatly looking towards international relations. By taking some of these soldiers home, many people will be satisfied. It seems like bringing soldiers home is almost more of an issue than the war itself. All that bumper stickers and signs say now are things such as “Bring Home the Troops” which is a major concern of many Americans which it should be. The recent sentence of death that was given to Saddam Hussein was looked at as a major liberation in Iraq and it already opened the doors to a better chance of finally achieving a democracy. This is the type of interaction that America should have. A look but not touch type of attitude that doesn’t encourage much of a violent reaction after making political or military moves.

Saadi Hamid, 63, sat in his photography shop staring up at a television carrying the second broadcast of the sentencing. He cried when he saw it the first time. But this time, when Saddam Hussein began to shout, “Long live the Iraqi people!” Mr. Hamid looked away and smiled broadly. “‘Long life for Iraqi people and he killed everyone,” he said. “No one can help him now.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/world/middleeast/06voices.html

This is showing just how explosive the reaction of the Iraqi people can be after events unfolded themselves no thanks to the American military being there. Rather than fighting this was for us to win, they are fighting for Iraq to stay together.

This book was definetly worth reading. I couldn’t have picked a better one on the list. One of the lasting understandings I took from this book was the importance of life. These people did absolutely nothing wrong and were taken to camps to die in horrible deaths away from their family and in horrible physical condition. Everyone has seen the pictures and the movies but many people haven’t read or seen the Holocaust through the perspectvie of someone who lived through it. When Elie first arrived to the camp he said he had seen young children, babies, being burned in the furnaces. That is the true definition of Evil. I have never heard of anything that could compare to that level of evil. I would like to find out more about what the Nazis could possibly have been thinking as they did these deeds. I wonder if they truely believed what Hitler was telling them and they really did want to kill the Jewish population because they hated them or if they just felt that they had to if they wanted to survive in Germant and escpae the wrath of Hitler. If it was more of a follow the leader mentality compared to a individual thought process.